


the weight of forced expectations, and the liberty of choice

by Eissel



Series: my values in another light [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Hogwarts House Sorting, Drabble, Gen, Ravenclaw Neville Longbottom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eissel/pseuds/Eissel
Summary: In one life, the hat saw that Neville would learn bravery if he went to Gryffindor. In another, the hat thought that "learn" was the operative word in that evaluation.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom & Sorting Hat
Series: my values in another light [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136156
Kudos: 13
Collections: au housing - flash fiction





	the weight of forced expectations, and the liberty of choice

**Author's Note:**

> Neville is one of those characters who I think fits perfectly well in his canon house, but that shares more than a few shades of commonality with the values of the other houses. The obvious resorting choice here would be Hufflepuff, or even Slytherin, but I decided to give myself a challenge to try and justify a Ravenclaw sorting.

The hat sits floppily on the head of one Neville Longbottom, and it sighs as it reviews his memories, searches his soul, weighs his values.

The boy has truly suffered too much in too little time. It briefly considers placing the boy in Gryffindor. It is the easy option, the expected one even. The one that would be forced upon him.

No. That wouldn’t do. Instead, it looks deeper. What values does  _ he  _ hold personally? What is  _ he _ looking for?

There is a bright boy here. A brave boy, an ambitious one as well. He is loyal, that was unquestionable, what with his hands gripping his father’s old wand so tightly that the knuckles have gone white. (And yet even that was also forced upon him.)

Sorting is hard, because no child truly has a grasp on their own values, but the hat will make do. It always has. 

It takes another look at the memories, at the child who has spent his life clinging to and learning from a shrewd, cunning woman who cuts her way through political circles rather than dance in them, a boy who has learned kindness from plants, and a boy who will learn bravery.

Well, when thought of it that way, there really was no other place for the boy to go, was there?

_ I don’t want to disappoint them.  _

Vague and inexact. If the hat could smile, it would.

_ They wouldn’t be disappointed, no matter where you went.  _ It affirms, right before it shouts out:  _ Ravenclaw! _


End file.
